(HealthNewsDigest.com) – Tonight, Tuesday November 15, PBS NewsHour will air the first in a series of reports on the dental crisis in America. Health Correspondent Betty Ann Bowser will report from several areas of the country- towns like Grundy, Virginia in Appalachia and Bethel, Alaska– where residents do not receive enough dental care.
According to Bowser’s stories, poverty and geographic isolation keep these populations from visiting the dentist, but there’s also a larger concern: In September, the federal government identified more than 4,500 areas of the country where there simply aren’t enough dentists.
The report will air tonight on the PBS NewsHour (check local listings). Online coverage, including video interviews and slideshows, are available on the PBS NewsHour Rundown blog (see links below). And on Friday, Nov. 15, at 1 p.m. ET, Betty Ann Bowser will lead a live chat about the dental crisis in America on the NewsHour website.
For more information or video embed codes, contact Kat Saunders at [email protected] or Monty Tayloe at [email protected]
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The following reports are available online:
Video: A dispatch from the Appalachian town of Grundy, Va., where uninsured residents stand outside in the cold and rain one weekend each fall to receive free dental care. There are only three dentists in this southwest corner of the state for a population of 24,000. Grundy resident Bobby Horn had every tooth in his mouth extracted that weekend. http://to.pbs.org/snb6Uu
Photo Essay: An intimate look at a day in Toksook Bay, a small Yup’ik Eskimo village of about 550 is on the edge of the Bering Sea. http://to.pbs.org/tSSUGd
Video: A conversation with dental therapist Jana Schuerch a second-year student at the Yuut Elitnaurviat Dental Training Clinic in Bethel, Alaska. Many hope the program will alleviate Alaska’s longtime dental shortage by allowing dental therapists like Jana to perform simple surgical procedures. Others – including members of the powerful American Dental Association – say only certified dentists are qualified to cut tissue and conduct other types of irreversible dental work. http://to.pbs.org/rRft8i
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